


We Don't Try

by orphan_account



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: M/M, karate au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-09-17
Updated: 2013-09-28
Packaged: 2017-12-26 20:16:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,566
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/969855
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“I see you’ve met Gavin.” He says with a smirk.</p>
<p>“You know him?” </p>
<p>“Yeah I do, he lives with me. If you even pretended to listen to me when I talk you’d know that.” Geoff says, his grim growing more mischievous. “And I think you have a little admirer, Michael.”</p>
<p>Looking over at the door, Michael notices Gavin lingering. Then, when he caught Michael looking at him his eyes widened and he blushed, leaving quickly. “Shut up, Geoff.” He says, and he can feel a blush developing on his face. </p>
<p>He’d never had someone admire him before.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This might be multi chapter, depending on if anyone wants more. This is really just me trying my hand at writing fighting and trying something I've never done before. So enjoy this short beginning that might end up being longer.

Michael Jones, first degree black belt, curly red hair and a strong build. This man’s face was obscured by a foam and plastic helmet, similar pseudo armor covering his fists, chest, and feet. He was sparring, or fighting, with third degree black belt Geoff Ramsey. Despite Geoff’s age, he was still skilled in his trade, martial arts, or, more specifically, the Wado Ryu karate style.

 

They were both in mirrored sync with each other, circling, just waiting for the other to make the first move. Michael, muscles tensed and eyes calculating, noticed the slight shift in Geoff’s stance, signaling an incoming attack. Seeing the fist aimed at his head, Michael ducks and attempts to sweep the older man’s feet from under him. Predicting this, Geoff jumps over the leg of the ginger and they quickly go back to circling each other.

 

“C’mon Geoff, where’s all that confidence you had earlier?” Michael says, not above trash talking evidently. But, as Geoff had been training for far longer than Michael had, saw that he was trying to shake him up, make him mad and irrational. So, instead of rushing forward or even letting the words register, he shot back a response just as snarky.

 

“I think it’s where you need to learn to put it.” Michael swung his leg in a vicious roundhouse kick aimed at Geoff’s head, the kick blocked with a quick block from his target. He retaliated with a brutal twist to Michael’s leg, making him fall hard on his back, the wind rushing out of his lungs.

 

Michael gasped for air, coughing and muttering something. “What was that?” Geoff asks smartly.

 

“I said you win.” The ginger said with a reluctant face and a snarl in his voice as if daring Geoff to laugh at him.

 

“Alright, then looks like it’s your turn to teach the little brats today.” With that, Geoff walked away, leaving Michael in an open area with little kids getting ready for class.Wrenching off his helmet and armor, Michael goes over to help some kids tie their belts, trying to calmly explain how and not snap at the brats. He noticed a man standing in a crisp new _gi_ and a stiff white _obi._ Walking up to him he asks if he needs help.

 

“Um… yeah, I think I might be in the wrong class…” the man stutters nervously, obviously new at the dojo. Laughing quietly at the man, he briefly considers sending him away, but Michael decides against it.

 

“Nah, you’re fine. I’m Mr. Jones, but you can call me Michael if you want.” He says, offering to show the man how to tie his belt.

 

“Um, yeah, thanks. I’m Gavin, by the way.” The man says in a British accent. After his belt was tied properly, Michael directs him to the spot on the mat they used for classes that everyone else was gathering. Michael sighs, knowing what was in store for him this class. He stands in front of the little kids, all in a fairly straight line in belt rank order, which only went up to green belt.

 

“Alright, for those of you new here, seeing as there are a few of you, I’ll give you a short rundown of how class works. First, we have to bow into class, it shows respect for you, your classmates, and your teachers. Then we warm up, and then we start learning things.” After they did the usual bow and warm ups, he instructed the kids to disperse around the mat, to get plenty of room so that they wouldn’t hit anyone. “What we’ll start with is the basic punch. Remember to keep your stance steady, bend both your legs and twist your body along with the punch, like this.”

 

After demonstrating a few times, the movement feeling natural and second nature after doing it so many times for so long, he instructs the kids to try it themselves. Michael walks around and helps the ones that need it, most having gotten it on their first few tries. But there was one person who didn’t seem to be quite getting it.

 

It was Gavin, and seeing as he was the oldest student (by far) present, Michael would have assumed him to get it the easiest. He kept trying to fling his arm forward, plainly trying to duplicate what he’d seen and disregarding the directions.

 

“Dude, calm down, you’re not swinging an axe, you’re trying to get in and get out, like this see?” Michael demonstrates how to throw a proper punch, nodding Gavin tries again, this time getting it better than his first few attempts. “Right, now just bend your knees a bit and you’ve got it.”

 

The Britt nods, throwing an acceptable punch for someone his level. The rest of class went on smoothly, Michael teaching the kids how to block, which they caught on to quicker than punching. Once the class was done, Gavin came up to talk with the ginger.

 

“So, um… thanks for helping me.” He says nervously.

 

“No problem. I am your teacher, aren’t I?”  after Gavin left, Geoff came out from the back room.

 

“I see you’ve met Gavin.” He says with a smirk.

 

“You know him?”

 

“Yeah I do, he lives with me. If you even pretended to listen to me when I talk you’d know that.” Geoff says, his grim growing more mischievous. “And I think you have a little admirer, Michael.”

 

Looking over at the door, Michael notices Gavin lingering. Then, when he caught Michael looking at him his eyes widened and he blushed, leaving quickly. “Shut up, Geoff.” He says, and he can feel a blush developing on his face.

 

He’d never had someone admire him before.


	2. chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm writing more. This is too fun to write.

The helmet felt uncomfortable and hot on his head, his auburn curls plastered to it with perspiration. And this was only the second sparring match he’d had so far. This match was him versus Lindsay, a match he was not looking forward to.

 

Mostly because she always beat the shit out of him.

 

Lindsay was bouncing on the balls of her feat, giving a look that said ‘I dare you to make the first move.’ And no way in hell was Michael going to move first. He could pinpoint the exact moment Lindsay decided the staring contest was over and swung her arm in a ridge hand at his face. Despite his ability to predict it, he was not able to stop her. Once the ridge hand was blocked, she aimed a kick at his chest, then a quick tap to the head, leaving Michael unwilling to go on.

 

Thankfully, Jack called the end of the round and instructed everyone to move back to the front of the room. Lindsay, being a first degree brown belt, was able to get into the line near enough to Michael. It was the lower belt’s turn to spar.

 

Noticing Gavin, the one he’d helped a few months ago and most classes since then, having a new yellow belt and challenging an orange belt that Michael vaguely remembered was named Kerry. The beginning of the match started and it was clear Gavin was in for quite the ass kicking, seeing as Kerry was apparently quite good at sparring, and Gavin was, well, Gavin. Once the end of the round was called, Gavin was practically fuming with anger, and Kerry had nearly hyperventilated from laughing so hard.

 

The next round started, and somehow Michael ended up with Gavin. He was standing in front of him, Gavin with slight confusion on his face. “I thought you were a teacher.”

 

“Only sometimes, right now I’m as much of a student as you are.” After that they ended all conversation and started to spar. However, after a while, Michael realized it would help no one to practically bully Gavin, so he did what any generous person would do. He let him win.

 

After swinging a weak punch that Gavin easily countered, he purposefully left his face open, but despite that, Gavin aimed at his chest, resulting in Michael having to pretend to shift his arm accidently out of the way. After more and more occurrences similar to the first one, the round was called and everyone went back to the lines.

 

For the rest of class, Michael decided to watch two people spar. This time it was someone named Ray and Ryan. Ray was a slightly smaller man who was a green belt and Ryan was a larger man with a second degree brown belt. Despite the difference in size and rank, surprisingly it was Ray who landed the most hits.

 

Thinking him an easy target, Ryan quickly slipped in and threw a side kick, Ray dancing out of the way. Ryan’s balanced compromised for a few seconds, Ray was able to sweep his feet from under him and punched Ryan once in the face, afterwards helping him up and resetting since the round wasn’t over.

 

The next round, it was Ray who moved first, feigning a punch to the face and slipping in with a tap to the chest instead. Twisting to avoid the retaliation Ryan sent at him, he swept Ryan’s feet yet again. After this happened too many times for it to be reasonable, the round was called.

 

After that, class was over and Michael went to put his pads, or mock armor, away and get ready to go home. He was stopped by Gavin, who apparently wanted to talk to him.

 

“So, um… I know you let me win today.”

 

“Yeah, what of it? I was helping you. What good would it do for me to go full ninja on you and kick your ass off the calendar? Nothing, Gavin. You need to learn to control yourself and recognize an attack when one is coming at you.”

 

“Would you be able to… um, maybe teach me some tricks?”

 

Michael was half tempted to tell him no, to say that he was only an orange belt and he shouldn’t be worrying about that yet, but one look at his face and his mouth started moving on its own. “Sure, but I’m not gonna teach you some Karate Kid shit, you’re only an orange belt.”

 

His face lit up and Gavin started dragging him to the open mat. Starting out facing each other, Michael begins his usual job of the teacher. “Alright, so when you spar, you don’t have time to think about what to do, you gotta act fast. It isn’t a contest of strength; it’s a contest of speed.” After that, the teaching goes slowly but smoothly, Michael teaching the Britt the fundamentals of sparring.

 

After they were finished, Gavin said one last thing to Michael. “Thanks Michael, I appreciate it. You’re really smart and good at what you do.” With a bright smile, Gavin leaves the dojo and Michael alone.

 

Maybe Michael could get used to being admired.

 

But he wished Gavin wasn’t suck a dumb idiot.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so I pulled this together since I noticed I haven't been updating. Enjoy!

Today was not going very well for him. First he’d spilt coffee on his favorite pair of pants, and then he couldn’t find his belt, then he got stuck with teaching the little kids again. But now he had hope for the rest of the day, mainly because of a certain student by the name of Gavin Free.

 

He’d gotten his orange belt; though Michael wasn’t quite sure he was ready for it. Gavin had passed all the tests, so there was really no reason not to give him his belt, but still. The class had just lined up and they were shifting impatiently, ready for class to get started.

 

“Alright, today we’ll be practicing our moves for the competition in a few months. For those of you who don’t know, we have a karate challenge once every year. There are three categories you can compete in are kata, sparring, and bo kata. First up is kata. Everyone spread out across the room and practice.” Michael went over to a first degree brown belt to help him, seeing as he was struggling to remember the form.

 

“You need help?” he asks the student he vaguely remembers is named Joel.

 

“Kinda, I just need a reminder of what comes after this move,” he says, demonstrating a dip and strike.

 

“Alright, after that you need to come back up and hold your hands like this.” Michael holds one arm in front of his chest, the other arm tucked near his side.

 

“Oh, that’s right. Thanks, I got it now.” Nodding, Michael goes off, noticing Gavin having trouble with his form as well. Wondering why every time he has a class with Gavin he has to directly interact with him briefly, he puts on a scowl. He would have fun with this.

 

“What are you having trouble with _this_ time, Gavin?” Michael asks with an angry undertone.

 

“Well… um, you see, I can’t seem to remember my form.” Gavin says flustered from Michael’s apparent irrational anger. Demonstrating he explains “I can’t remember what comes after this move.”

 

Michael sighs heavily, grinning internally at Gavin’s flinch at his reaction. “Alriiiight, I suppose I could help you, but you have to promise to remember what I tell yooooou.”

 

“Um… ok?”

 

“See you have to go to the corners and punch, _then_ you block and do the same on the other side.” Michael demonstrates the form, Gavin watching closely. Nodding his head in understanding, the Brit does the same, seeming to have remembered the rest of the kata for his level. Once he was done, Michael suddenly pipes up, visibly making Gavin jump.

 

“Well? Do you have it or not? I don’t have all day, man, I gotta get around to other people.”

 

Flustered, Gavin says “Y-yeah, I got it Mi-cool.”

 

Snickering slightly at the pronunciation of his name, Michael dons his scowl once again, struggling to maintain it because of his silent giggles. “ _Mi-cool_ ” he mocks, “If you’re gonna use my name the least you could do is pronounce it right.”

 

“Um… well… I…”

 

“Dude, chill out, I’m just messing with you, you did fantastically. And I don’t care how you pronounce my name.” Michael smiles and walks away, leaving a confused Gavin behind. Once he’s almost at the front an arm raps around his shoulder, causing him to stiffen and start to reach towards the arm in an attempt to get it off. Before he could, though, it disappeared from his shoulder and was replaced by Jack in front of him.

 

“You should really stop the bullying,” he begins reprimanding, but Michael can tell he’s just joking. “It’s not cool. How’re we going to get those chumps to black belt if you do that to them every time?”

 

“Yeah, yeah, I’ve heard this before. ‘don’t scare them or they’ll shit their pants and never reach the next belt.’ Don’t worry, I’ve toned it down a bit, they won’t (usually) shit their pants anymore.”

 

Chuckling, Jack starts to walk away. “Alright, but I see how you look at Gavin. Maybe you two should talk more, you know, get to know each other better. Anyways, I got the rest of the class; take the rest of the day off. I don’t know, relax, maybe invite Gavin.”

 

Michael considers this, and decides that maybe he would do that.

 

Yeah, he’d go and ask Gavin to hang out.

 

He hadn’t done that for a while.


End file.
